Glossary Terms - C

Call For Votes

What you do after discussing whether a new newsgroup should be created.

CEO

Chief Executive Officer. The head honcho of a company, who has little time to learn computer systems. CEOs generally earn a lot more money than you or I.

CERN

The birthplace of the World Wide Web, although in real life the people at CERN do high-energy physics research. Located in Geneva, Switzerland. CERN doesn't stand for anything any more, although it once was an acronym for a French name.

CFV

See Call For Votes.

channel

In Internet Relay Chat, an area that theoretically has a specific discussion topic. See IRC.

charter

The document that lays out what topics a newsgroup will cover, what its name will be, and other relevant details.

chat script

A simple conversation (you hope) between your computer and your host machine that allows you to log in automatically. Chat scripts usually involve a series of send and expect strings. Your host sends a login prompt; your computer responds with your username. Your host sends a password prompt; your computer responds with your password.

chiasmus

A term from classical rhetoric that describes a situation in which you introduce subjects in the order A, B, C, and then talk about them in the order C, B, A.

CIS

Stands for CompuServe Information Service, or simply CompuServe. Wags often replace the S with a $. See CompuServe.

ClariNet

An alternate hierarchy of newsgroups that uses the same transmission routes as Usenet, but carries commercial information from UPI and others. You, or your provider, must pay to read ClariNet news.

client

The program or computer that requests information from a server computer or program. Used in terms of client/server computing. See also server.

CMS

Short for Conversational Monitor System. The part of the operating system on certain IBM mainframes with which you interact. Not at all conversational.

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Where you type commands to an operating system such as DOS or Unix. Command-line operating systems can be powerful but are often a pain to work with, especially for those used to a window interface.

Compress

Generically, to make a file smaller by removing redundant information. Specifically, the Unix compress program that does just that. Files compressed with the Unix compress command end with a .Z suffix (always a capital Z). Compressed files may be expanded with the Unix command uncompress.

CompuServe

One of the oldest and largest commercial online services. Sometimes abbreviated as CIS.

connect time

The amount of time you are actually connected to and using a computer. Because connect or telephone charges are based on this amount of time, you want to keep it as low as possible.

CREN

Corporation for Research and Educational Networking.

cross-posted

What happens to a Usenet posting when you put several newsgroup names in the Newsgroups line. More efficient than posting multiple individual copies.

CSLIP

Compressed SLIP. A type of SLIP account that uses compression to increase performance.

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